Robinson Crusoe Author:Daniel Defoe

First published in 1719 under the title;"The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York. Mariner; who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an uninhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, wherein all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pirates. Written by Himself."This novel is loosely based on the life and story of Scotsman Alexander Selkirk (1676-1721). He went to sea on the galleon Cinque Ports in 1703 under privateer William Dampier. After fears that their vessel had become unseaworthy (indeed it did sink shortly thereafter), Selkirk asked to be put ashore on one of the uninhabited Juan Fernández islands -- now called Robinson Crusoe Island -- about 400 miles off the west coast of Chile, South America. Selkirk was rescued in 1709 by Woodes Rogers (c.1679-1732). Rogers went on to write A cruising voyage round the world: first to the South-Sea, thence to the East-Indies, and homewards by the Cape of Good Hope (1712) which contained the first account of Selkirk's ordeal.Sequels to this story are The Further Adventures of Robinson Crusoe; Being the Second and Last Part of His Life, And of the Strange Surprizing Accounts of his Travels Round three Parts of the Globe. Written by Himself. To which is added a Map of the World, in which is Delineated the Voyages of Robinson Crusoe (1719), and Serious Reflections of Robinson Crusoe